INSIGHTS ALONG THE PATH TO SUSTAINABILITY| November 30, 2005
The Geography of Occupational Injury and Illness in the “Meat Products” Industries: Economic, Demographic, Social, and Political Risk Factors RONI A. NEFF, ScM, Doctoral Candidate, Department of Health Policy and Management, JHSPH SUMMARY Meat and poultry slaughtering and production remains one of the most hazardous industries in the United States, despite declining reported rates. Economic, demographic, social, and political risk factors may play an important role in placing workers at risk in these industries. This research takes one approach to exploring that possibility, examining the geographic distributions of:
• meat products establishments (meatpacking, sausage and other prepared
meats, and poultry processing) ;
• occupational injuries and illnesses within the meat products industry; and
• selected area-level risk factors. A conceptual framework is described for area occupational injury/illness risk, in which area-level risk factors affect both business incentives and capacity to prevent injuries and illnesses, and worker vulnerability to these events. Injury/illness risk can be increased both directly through inadequate safety procedures, and indirectly through factors like work organization (especially production line speed and mandatory overtime), worker stress, and worker economic vulnerability leading to willingness to take inappropriate risks. This presentation will share background on the historic and current geographic distributions of the three meat products industries (meatpacking, sausage and other prepared meats, and poultry processing). Maps will be presented to show the distribution of all establishments in the data set, and of those with the highest injury/illness rates. Maps will also demonstrate areas of overlap between counties with high numbers of establishments/high rate establishments and those with selected area-level risk factors. Initial regression results aimed at quantitatively evaluating these relationships will also be presented. The findings will be placed in context of preliminary results from a broader project looking at similar research questions in a multi-industry data set. This research project is innovative in its research question, data set, and conceptual framework. The results could support new occupational injury/illness prevention strategies targeting high-risk geographic areas. Further, the research contributes to sustainability by providing data and visual tools for discussing hazards and social issues in industrial meat production. Improved information will help consumers and policymakers to make personal and policy decisions about meat in the context of the range of risks and costs. PRESENTER BIOGRPAHY Roni Neff is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Health Policy and Management. She has a master’s degree from the Harvard School of Public Health, Department of Health and Social Behavior, and has worked in a wide range of public health research, practice and advocacy roles on topics including environmental and occupational health, reproductive health, and science policy. Her dissertation examines the geographic variation in occupational injury/illness across many hazardous industries, with the goal of improving surveillance and intervention targeting.
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